Wayne State was picked to finish ninth in the 2025 NSIC Men's Outdoor Track and Field Preseason Coaches' Poll released Friday morning by the league office in Burnsville, Minnesota with junior thrower Daylin Mallory and freshman sprinter Emmanuel Badejo listed as Wildcat Athletes to Watch this season. 
            12-time defending NSIC champion Minnesota State was voted as the team to beat again this season collecting 98 points and nine first-place votes followed by Augustana in second with 91 points and the remaining two first-place votes.  University of Mary and MSU Moorhead tied for third with 74 points with Northern State fifth at 67 points. 
            Sioux Falls came in sixth at 56 points followed by Concordia-St. Paul (49) and Minnesota Duluth (38) with Wayne State ninth at 28 points.  Southwest Minnesota State (16) and Minot State (14) closed out the coaches' poll. 
            Mallory, a junior thrower from Norfolk (Norfolk HS), was tabbed as Wayne State's Field Athlete to Watch after earning All-NSIC honors last spring placing third in the discus (164' 8") followed by a fifth-place mark in the shot put.  This season, Mallory set a new indoor school record in the shot put (55' 2 ¼") and was fifth in the event at the NSIC Indoor Championships. 
            Badejo, a freshman from Ijebu Ode, Nigeria, earned All-NSIC honors during the indoor season placing third in the 400-meter dash while also running a leg on the seventh-place 1600-meter relay team.  He set a new indoor school record in the 400-meter dash this season in 47.72 seconds. 
            Wayne State opens the 2025 outdoor track and field season next Friday and Saturday, March 28-29, hosting the Wildcat Outdoor Classic at LeRoy Simpson Track/Bob Cunningham Field in Wayne.